Fall 2005

Note: Day students must wait until two weeks before the semester begins to register for Continuing Education Evening Division (CE) courses. You can get your name on an early sign up list by contacting Sue Bean at sbean@uvm.edu.  For more information on Continuing Education at UVM, please visit the CE website.

ENVS 195 / ART 095 Drawing in the Natural World
90066 / 90067 / 3 Credits / Davis TeSelle / W 2:30-5:30 pm
This course focuses on the practice of botanical, natural history and landscape drawing in the field. Students will be guided through basic drawing techniques to produce a portfolio of drawings. Emphasis is placed on clarifying the seeing process and developing skills to express this enhanced vision. Although experience with drawing is helpful students without an art background can find this course enjoyable and rewarding. Prerequisite: None. Enrollment Limit: 15.

ENVS 195 /ART 095 Drawing in the Natural World
90069 / 90070 / 3 Credits / Davis TeSelle / THUR, 2:30-5:30 pm TBA /

ENVS 177 Introduction to Landscape Restoration
90040 / 3 Credits / Rick Paradis / W, 4:00-7:00 pm / TBA /
This course explores the emerging field of landscape restoration, which attempts to find ways to repair and restore the ecological systems and natural landscapes damaged by past human activity and neglect. The many facets of restoration are examined including its historical development, its philosophical foundation, its multidisciplinary nature that borrows from the theoretical and applied sciences, and its varied practical applications. A combination of readings, seminars, invited guests, class presentations, and field trips offers a theoretical knowledge base in this exciting new discipline and practical experience participating at sites of ongoing restoration efforts. Prerequisite: ENVS 1 or NR 1 or permission (656-4055). Enrollment Limit: 20.

ENVS 195 /Z3 Introduction to Ethnobotany
90089 / Credits 3 / Katharine Anderson / T, 3:00-6:00 pm / TBA /
The study of people-plant interactions, as mediated by culture, is a rapidly developing discipline. We will examine historic and contemporary case-studies from a wide range of environments and cultural groups to learn about plants used for food, fiber, medicine, ritual and ornament. Focus will also be on how researchers gather, interpret and use this information; students will practice some of the botanical and ethnographic techniques required. Discussion topics include examining our own cultural beliefs about plants, ethical concerns of research, and how applied ethnobotany seeks to address social and environmental concerns. Prerequisite: ENVS 1 or NR 1 or permission. Enrollment Limit: 15.

ENVS/ART 195 Painting and Issues of Ecological Perception
91132/91131 / Cameron Davis / 3 Credits / W, 5:00-8:00 pm / 213 Williams /
Ecological perception is perceiving dynamic relationships between distinctions: self-other, spirit-matter, biota-atmosphere. Orienting our personal and painted responses to the sensuous natural environment is an opportunity to embrace our living connection to our world. This is true whether noticing the fragrance of the white pine on a walk, or the vibration of one color juxtaposed to another in a painting. This course addresses the role the arts, and specifically visual literacy, play in the broader environmental narrative. Exploring our definitions and sense of place is a primary consideration. The field journal is a foundational component of this course. Field drawings, collages, notations, etc. become the basis for developed studio work. Painting assignments employ both abstraction and representation as ways to explore inner and outer perception of place. Prerequisites: ART 1, or 2, ENVS 1, NR 1 or equivalent by permission only (865-2224). Enrollment Limit: 15.

ENVS 195 Wilderness Education & Leadership
TBA / 3 Credits / John Abbott / Tue 4:00 - 7:00 / TBA
This class provides a context for understanding of the history, current issues, ethics and future trends in the field of wilderness education and leadership. Students pursue skill mastery both in concrete leadership "hard skills" (technical backcountry travel & camp craft) and "soft skills", leadership skills emphasizing group development and interpersonal challenges. Class time includes sharing of readings, guest lectures, group research, wilderness living skill development and journaling. A 2-day student led trip is the culmination of learning. Prerequisite: ENVS 1 or NR 1 or permission (860) 677-0883. Enrollment Limit: 16.

ENVS 295 Eastern Wilderness: History, Science, and Policy
90064 / 3 Credits / Jim Northup / T 5:00-8:00 pm / TBA /
This course will explore the rich living tradition of wilderness protection and restoration in the eastern United States from the perspectives of history, science and public policy. We will ground our thinking in Eastern natural history and in the wilderness advocacy of prominent Easterners--George Perkins Marsh, Joseph Battell, George D. Aiken, Robert Stafford and others. We will look at current opportunities to establish more wilderness in the East, and will consider the ecological, and economic justifications for doing so. The East's unique contribution to the on-going national dialogue about wilderness restoration will be a recurring theme throughout the course, and will provide a fitting capstone at the end. Prerequisites: Junior or senior standing and one 100-level ENVS course. Enrollment Limit: 25.

ENVS 295 Travel Study in AIDs Education and Batey Life in the Dominican Republic
92416 / 3 Credits / Jon Erickson, Patricia Erickson / TBA /
HIV/AIDS has reached epidemic proportions throughout economically and socially marginalized communities in the developing world. Where communities have successfully curbed this spread, education and social change through community empowerment are most often the crucial factors. This course gives students the opportunity to participate in an HIV/AIDS education and community development project with the Batey Libertad Coalition in the Dominican Republic. Bateyes are communities of Haitian and Dominican migrant workers that live in nearly complete isolation from Dominican society, and lack the most basic needs and human rights. Initiated by a group of University of Vermont students, the Coalition was founded as a vehicle for HIV/AIDS education, to combat racism, and build community pride and economic opportunity in batey communities through the sport of soccer. Soccer is an integral part of local cultures across the world and as such can be a powerful instrument for social change. Students will work on projects with the Coalition and the Batey Relief Alliance with formal training from Grassroot Soccer, a non-governmental organization that uses professional soccer players to educate at-risk youth about HIV/AIDS in Africa. Ancillary projects include: using sports to break down social, gender, and economic barriers; basic and preventative health care, art and music as a community development tool; sustainable income generation; and language and literacy training. Prerequisite: Instructor permission: Enrollment Limit: 12. Program Fee: $800 (does NOT include roundtrip airfare) Dates for the trip to the Dominican Republic are November 18 - 27, 2005.